Earth Day 2017: How Mobile Forms are Making an Environmental Impact Across the World

The Crossroads of Revenue & Responsibility

Earth Day is a holiday that transcends almost every social barrier. It is a day where people look up from their smartphones and realize that the world around them is in danger.

The rise of technology has been by most estimations, including my own, a great thing for making the world a better place. Technology has given us the power to create new medical breakthroughs that save lives, allow us to connect with people and places never thought possible, and give us an economy where companies big or small are able to innovate and stay competitive.

The downside to technology and the globalization of markets has been the acceleration in which everything has taken place. We went from talking on payphones and using typewriters to "FaceTiming" on 5-inch curved screened smartphones in a matter of 3 decades. The cost for the speed in which these incredible advancements were made was at the expense of our environment. With how loose environmental regulations previously were, companies around the world took advantage by building massive CO2 producing factories, dumping waste in environmentally fragile areas, and tearing down forests all over the world in order to feed their industrial motives. Altogether this leads to the dramatic increase in the amount of air, water, and soil pollution found all across the earth - maybe even where you live today.

But it's not too late for change.

How Can You Help?

It doesn't take much. I'm not going to ask you to get rid of your car or start walking 25 miles to get to work. But maybe it's making sure to use the blue or green recycling bucket for your bottles and not just dumping it all in the same trash container. Also cutting down on the amount of water and electricity you use on a daily basis. Simply remembering to cut off the lights before you go out to dinner or cutting your shower short by 3 minutes can help save the environment and your utility bill.

How Mobile Forms Make an Impact

If you ask anyone at GoCanvas what we do, the first couple of words will more likely then not include "helping your business go paperless...".

How does that help the environment? Trees, of course.

Every year, over 18 million acres of forest across the world are cut down for industrial purposes. LiveScience reports that this annual tree loss is equivalent to the size of the country Panama, with about 36 football fields worth of forest lost every 60 seconds. In addition, Ecology.com reports that approximately 4 billion trees every year are cut down to be used in the making of paper forms. And to put it all in perspective, the Unites States alone accounts for 30% of the world's paper usage annually.

So you still asking yourself, "How does using GoCanvas really help the environment?".

Every day businesses choose Canvas to gain greater efficiency within their business. But what most of these businesses don't realize is that they're assisting in decreasing the number of trees that get cut down ever year for the manufacturing and production of paper. As the demand for paper forms decreases, so does the demand to cut trees down and process them in CO2 producing factories. This is a cycle that we are seeing before our eyes every day at GoCanvas, and it is something that can have a major impact on the world that we live in.